csp
174 TopicsUnified for Partners (UfP) - Pricing
We are a Microsoft Direct CSP currently purchasing Premier Support for Partners (PSfP). With Premier support we are allowed 30 cases/year and after that you have to pay approx. $650/case. We do a good job of handling issues on our own and only open tickets on our customers behalf as a last resort. We will have approx. 20 cases this year and won't need to purchase any additional. Under (UfP), based on the datasheet released we will qualify for a 40% discount on the Licensing & Azure rates. With the 40% discount our annual costs will increase 8x what we are currently paying. Our cost/case will go up to $12,725(1,800% increase) Is Microsoft trying to put their existing CSPs out of business with this pricing model? We have been driving new business and been a model partner. We have already had to deal with the complications of all of the risk and additional issues brought on by NCE and now we are going to be price gouged for support. The marketing materials are trying to make this look like a benefit to us when in fact it is the complete opposite. Will there be exceptions to this new pricing model? It made a lot more sense to charge CSPs per case they open above the 30 allowed. Why wouldn't Microsoft just increase the cost of the additional cases? This would make CSPs double think about opening a case that they may be able to solve on their own. (UfP) is going to punish the good CSPs by spreading the cost of companies abusing the system across the board. We would love to have the opportunity to express our concerns with a Microsoft representative in the CSP program. We have already made our PDM and Success Manager aware of the impact that this will have.SolvedDirect Bill Partner Status - Terminated
Hello, I'm writing here after four months of unresolved escalation through every standard support channel, and after reading the recent threads from ShayD , swathen , and ElDani . Our case appears to belong to the same family of issues, and I'm hoping raising it publicly will help both reach the correct internal Microsoft team and establish the broader pattern that seems to be affecting multiple partners across different markets. Who we are We are a longstanding Microsoft CSP partner based in Mongolia. We are the only Direct Bill CSP partner in the country, one of our market's top CSPs overall, and a multi-time Microsoft Country Partner of the Year. We service a large active customer base across enterprise, public sector, and SMB segments. What happened February 2, 2026: Original support case opened regarding a billing report discrepancy that surfaced in our Partner Center data. March 31, 2026: Microsoft formally acknowledged, in writing, in case #2602020010000623, that the discrepancy was caused by a Microsoft-side reporting error — not by any action or non-compliance on our part. April 1, 2026 — one day after the written acknowledgment of fault: Our Direct Bill Partner status was revoked by the system, and our Partner Center management capabilities were disabled the same day. We can no longer provision, modify, or service customer subscriptions. Since April 1: We have opened five separate support cases attempting to resolve the revocation. Each has been force-closed with instructions to file a new one. None has produced a named owner, a timeline, or a resolution path. Responses have consistently been variations of "under review" or "identifying the correct team." A TP&D ticket filed on the recommendation of our ASfP support manager was closed as out-of-scope. Our ASfP manager has confirmed that they cannot identify the correct internal escalation path, and mentioned that similar cases have been observed in other markets recently. Current impact A large base of end customers — including public sector and enterprise accounts — can no longer be properly serviced through their established CSP relationship. As the only Direct Bill CSP, our incapacitation effectively means Microsoft currently has no functioning Direct Bill CSP coverage in an entire country. Any customer requiring services through this channel has no path to receive them at the moment. Customer impact is accelerating each week the situation persists, and the reputational consequences are extending into the local market more broadly. What we're asking for Escalation of the above tickets to the appropriate CSP Accounts & Enrollment team, or to whichever internal Microsoft team owns erroneous Direct Bill revocations arising from billing report errors. Reinstatement of our Direct Bill Partner status, given that Microsoft has already formally acknowledged in writing that the root cause was an internal reporting error. Assignment of a named owner with authority to drive this to closure — not another ticket transfer into a queue. A broader note for Microsoft and the community In the past several weeks, multiple partners have posted here about erroneous or unexplained Direct Bill terminations. ShayD 's thread (resolved after Microsoft formally acknowledged the termination notice was sent in error), @swathen's thread (revenue classification / visibility gap causing an eligibility review failure despite provable revenue), and ElDani 's thread (Direct Bill account suddenly suspended April 1, 2026 — same date as ours) all share meaningful structural similarities with our case. Our situation makes at least the fourth public report of a similar pattern within roughly the last two months. I'm raising it here not to escalate emotionally, but because it genuinely seems worth Microsoft's internal attention that this may be a systemic issue in the billing classification or partner status pipeline, rather than a set of unrelated isolated cases. If anyone at Microsoft is tracking this pattern internally, our case is one more data point and we'd welcome being part of whatever review is happening. Any Microsoft employee who can help route this to the right team, or any partners who have successfully navigated a similar situation, please reach out. Full case documentation — including Microsoft's written acknowledgment, the complete chronological case history, and supporting materials — is available on request through direct message. Thank you for reading.URGENT: CSP Direct-Bill Termination. Mistakenly. Support Exhausted, Customers at Risk. MSFT, Help
We are a longstanding Microsoft partner (AOS-G and CSP Direct Bill) and urgently need escalation. Our support channels, including GetHelp escalation, have been unable to resolve or explain an unexplained and unwarranted termination notice, and the 30-day clock is running. This directly impacts our mutual customers and if not resolved ASAP. What Happened January 29, 2026: We received a 30-day termination notice stating we have not met CSP direct bill eligibility requirements. We are indeed compliant and believe this is an error. We provided evidence of compliance to Support and GetHelp several times, but no one has been able to identify what requirement we allegedly fail to meet or propose a solution. They continually say they are working on the issue and will get back to us in a couple days. Notably, we did not receive a 90-day or 60-day advance notice as required by Microsoft's documented process for at risk Direct Sell partners. We confirmed via Exchange message trace that no related emails were received in the prior 90 days. January 20: Nine days before the notice, we began receiving Error 715-123220 preventing us from adding new customers in Partner Center, suggesting our capabilities were already restricted before we were even notified. Tickets Needing Escalation #1 — GetHelp #11414107 / Support Request #2602030010000038 CSP Direct Bill termination notice. No substantive response beyond "we are working on it." #2 — GetHelp #11412447 / Support Request #2601200010001797 Error 715-123220 preventing new customer additions since January 20. Same status. Microsoft, please help: We request these tickets be escalated to the appropriate CSP or Legal team for immediate review and to stop the termination process ASAP. Any Microsoft staff who can assist — we would be deeply grateful! Thank you, sincerely. ShaySolvedDirect Bill - Suspended
Hello Today our CSP Direct account was suddenly suspended, and unfortunately we still do not know the reason. We opened a support ticket immediately and received a phone call shortly afterwards informing us that the case had been escalated to the Accounts and Enrollment team. However, since then, we have not received any further updates, nor any reply to our follow-up emails. At the moment, existing subscriptions are still being renewed automatically, which is a relief, but we are currently unable to perform any management actions on the existing subscriptions. I am becoming increasingly concerned that this may be one of the cases I have seen mentioned here by other partners. We currently manage hundreds of customers and thousands of subscriptions, all of which are now effectively without commercial management. Has anyone gone through a similar situation and can offer any advice, guidance, or suggestions on how to escalate the case and speed up the resolution process? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. DanielUnified for Partners (UfP)
Hello! A few months ago at Microsoft Ignite, Dan Rippey shared an update on The Future of Partner Support - Customer + Partner + Microsoft. Dan brought 'Unified for Partners' center stage and mentioned that Microsoft is going into listening mode and taking partner feedback. It's easy to share feedback with Microsoft by visiting booths at Ignite. What are some ways partners can share feedback with Dan and others at Microsoft year round? For reference, we have a signed NDA with Microsoft if that helps! My first thought are the two community calls that were running for most of 2025. They were the CSP Technical Training Series and Microsoft Partner Community Q&A Call. However, I don't see any upcoming events scheduled... Thanks! -jonMicrosoft CSP - Indirect Reseller Status is Suspended and Can't Get Fixed
I am in a very bad spot with our indirect reseller Microsoft account and am hoping that maybe someone out there might be able to help me. In mid May, I placed an order with Pax8 for a new customer and the order was rejected by Microsoft with the error, "Associated partner LegalBusinessProfile NotFound." It turns out that when we moved offices and I updated our business's address at http://partner.microsoft.com, Microsoft de-authorized our partner status, which I didn't catch, and then put our Cloud Service Provider (CSP) indirect reseller program into "Suspended" status after some time. In the partner center, I was able to get our legal business profile fixed easy enough - I just had to open a ticket and send them some legal documentation. Everything under the "Partner" tab in the Partner Portal is now green checkboxes and "Authorized". Pax8 tried the provisioning again, and got the same error. It turns out that our "Indirect Reseller status" is now "Suspended" and this wasn't changed when the "Partner" status was fixed. Microsoft has a webpage that describes why this can happen and what to do to get it fixed at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/account-settings/suspended-partner-center-account . It says, "Microsoft suspends Partner Center accounts for Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program when: Significant account abuse is detected Your vetting status is Rejected for more than 30 days" We haven't had any account abuse (mercifully, our existing tenants are still operational and being billed for through Pax8), so our vetting status was almost certainly to blame. That same document says, "If you are sure that your account is compliant and should be moved back to Active state, contact https://partner.microsoft.com/dashboard/support/servicerequests/create for help with reactivating your account," so I opened a ticket with Microsoft. Actually, 3 tickets so far, because every single one has the same copy-and-paste reply: Thank you for contacting Microsoft Partner support about the suspension of the CSP account. In the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement, both Microsoft and our partners reserve the right to walk away from the partner relationship by providing 30 days' notice to the other. The notice of suspension and termination proceeding was provided April 2024. Neither party is required to offer an explanation for the decision to terminate the partner agreement. As Microsoft is exercising its rights under this section 4.b of the Microsoft AI Cloud Program Agreement, we are unable to share an explanation or further details. Thanks, I can't get anywhere with Microsoft support. We just landed a big customer and need to set up their tenant. I am afraid that if this goes on much longer or if somehow we are unable to add any more customers to our Pax8 account, that we'll lose this customer, which is large enough to really hurt the business. Does anyone here have any ideas on how to get through to someone at Microsoft that could help with this situation? Does anyone else have any other ideas on what else we could try? Some additional notes: When clicking "Agreements" in the partner portal, we get an error message, "Service unavailable. Something went wrong. Please try reloading the page, if this problem persists please contact https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=868372." Everything in Legal Info/Partner looks good. Our "Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program status" is "Active". Everything in Legal Info/Reseller looks good except that "Indirect Reseller status" shows "Suspended". Under Identifiers/Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, I have 1 PartnerGlobal ID and 2 PartnerLocation IDs, corresponding to our old and new addresses. Do I need to delete the old PartnerLocation ID? I haven't done so because it looks like this step is irreversible but I am getting desperate enough to try it. Our "Company profile" is not filled out, but the "Update" button stays grayed out after I fill in the information and it appears that I am unable to update this. I thought that maybe I just needed to sign the "Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement" again, but I can't find anywhere on the partner portal where I would do so. I went through my emails exhaustively and we did not receive a, "notice of suspension and termination proceeding" in April 2024, or any other time for that matter. I can't find a copy of the Microsoft AI Cloud Program Agreement to even see what section 4.b says. I've dealt with government bureaucracies a lot in my career, but I've never experienced a Kafkaesque situation 10% as bad as this one. This is probably the most stressful thing I've dealt with in this business in the last decade. This could destroy our business if I can't get this sorted out. Sorry for the wall of text, but I tried to include as much detail as possible and it got long. If you got to this point in my post, thank you for helping or trying to help me. The latest ticket ID we have from Microsoft is 2406050040012239SolvedTransitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller
I am sharing our experience regarding transition from DB to IR started 4 months ago to understand the better approach to manage our partner centers in the future. We started transitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller in November 2025. We currently have: one PGA with two different associated CSP PLAs: Direct Bill PLA and Indirect Reseller PLA. We operate with two different Partner Centers: "first" PC used for the PGA and the Direct Bill PLA "second" used for the Indirect Reseller PLA At the moment, everything is working correctly, as we are actively transferring customers from the Direct Bill model to the Indirect Reseller model, Incentives for the Indirect Reseller (PLA IR) are being received correctly, designations are managed under the PGA tenant, ecc. Regarding TTM, we exceed the 1M‑dollar requirement, but only at the PGA level, as it currently includes both DB and IR revenue. Do you know whether Microsoft requires the 1M‑dollar threshold to be met at the PGA level by combining DB and IR revenue, or if only DB revenue counts for maintaining Direct Bill status? Our other question concerns the end of the customers migration, considering that the Direct Bill PLA will eventually become restricted or revoked. Whether it is recommended to continue using two separate Partner Centers, first for Membership, Incentives, Designations, Earnings, and overall partner management and the second exclusively for CSP Tier-2 customer management. Or whether you suggest alternative or better scenarios for managing the Partner Center structure once the transition is fully completed. Tks for feedback and information. FabrizioSolvedPartner Enablement Calls for CSP Partners!
Microsoft invites you to our CSP Partner Enablement Series, where we’ve combined the CSP Community call and the CSP Technical Training call and into a single, streamlined call. This new format brings together high priority partner updates, technical/adoption enablement, and best practices into one cohesive experience, making it easier for partners to stay informed and prepare for change. You are welcome to access old calls or join future ones! CSP Partner Enablement seriesURGENT: CSP Direct Bill Termination due to Revenue Discrepancy / Visibility Gap Support Exhausted
We’re currently working through a CSP Direct Bill eligibility review and have run into a discrepancy that we’re hoping other partners may have experience with. Our organization has been operating under CSP Direct Bill and, based on Partner Center indicators and prior guidance from Microsoft, we believed we were meeting the ~$1M TTM revenue requirement. However, we were recently informed by Microsoft that our Direct Bill revenue is being calculated at approximately $892K, below the threshold. The key issue appears to be related to revenue classification: Microsoft indicated that some of our revenue may be attributed to CSP Indirect Reseller (IR), even though we do not actively transact through a distributor. All licensing is billed directly by Microsoft, and we can provide invoices to support this. We’ve also been told that when tenants are associated with both Direct Bill and Indirect models, the 12-month revenue breakdown is not visible in Partner Center. Microsoft has acknowledged that this visibility gap exists and that partners cannot currently see the same classification used internally. Our case is currently under review with Microsoft, but we’re trying to better understand: Has anyone encountered a situation where tenants were classified as indirect without actively selling through a distributor? Are there any reliable ways to identify which customers or subscriptions may be tagged as indirect? Has anyone successfully reconciled or corrected this type of revenue classification issue? Any insights or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated, especially if you’ve navigated this during a Direct Bill eligibility review. Thanks in advance.February Incentive Payment Not Received – Unable to Create Support Ticket
Hello Team, We have not received the incentive payment for February and would like assistance reviewing this issue. Our organization meets the requirements under the App Innovation solution area and is eligible to receive Azure-related incentives. However, the February payment has not been deposited. Additionally, we are unable to create a support ticket in Partner Center because the AI Assistant interface prevents access to the support request page. Could you please check if there are any issues with our eligibility, payment profile, or required documentation, or help escalate this matter to the appropriate support team? Thank you.Solved